Musings
by MountainAir
Summary: Gale's suddenly odd behavior makes Katniss wonder if what they have has become more than just a close friendship. One-shot AU.


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I close my eyes and sigh contently, basking in the warmth of the rising sun against my skin. It's Sunday today, so Gale should be here any second, appearing practically out of thin air and startling the bejesus out of me. Even after years of knowing him, it's still alarming at how quietly he appears; as if he were nothing more than a tiny mouse strolling along the forest floor. My own quiet steps are nothing compared to his.

Needless to say, I'm excited for him to arrive. Ever since he's to started working in the mines, I've been seeing him less and less. He works twelve hours a day now, so unfortunately - due to the small amount of spare time he has - he only has time to go hunting on Sundays. I miss his company like crazy. I've known for years that he would have to go to work once he turned nineteen, but now that the time has actually come, I've been feeling extremely incomplete hunting alone. I'm used to watching his back, and him watching mine.

Being all alone in the forest now reminds me too much of my father, of the times I'd have to come in here alone right after he died.

I squeeze my eyes shut, just as I do each time his face fills my thoughts, but I can't stop thinking about him with Gale gone. I have nobody here to distract me, nobody here to make me smile and feel relaxed. Even while I'm sitting on our favorite rock, our meeting place, I can never let myself feel content. It seems much too wide without him sitting next to me.

Sometimes I wonder if the reason I can only feel content with Gale is because there's something more between us. Yes, he's my best friend - he has been for years. But I can't help but notice the way he looks at me now, as if he's seeing me in a completely new light, and he doesn't quite know what to say. Other times, we'll be sitting in silence and he'll open his mouth to say something, but close it again and frown. I've asked him what he's thinking when he does this, but he's never told me.

What if Gale likes me?

"No," I whisper silently to myself. "He wouldn't."

And it's true. Gale's two years older than me, and he's popular and very, very handsome (not that I'd admit it to him). It would be easy for him to find a wife. I don't pretend I can't hear what the other girls at school say about him, either. Constant, "Gale Hawthorne is _so hot!"_ and "Don't you just _love _his dimples?" can be heard in every hall, on every day of every week. I never mention it to Gale, but whenever I hear it I'm filled with a wave of jealousy. It's not my right to feel that way, of course, but I can't help it. He's my best friend.

"Hey, Catnip."

I jump as I'm snapped out of my thoughts. There stands Gale, five feet away, grinning at me.

"Startle you?" he teases, reaching his hand down towards me.

I grin at him and take his hand. "Nope."

Gale pulls me up and we go retrieve our bow and arrows under the bush we use to hide them. He leaves to go check his snares while I go find game of my own. It doesn't take long before I see a squirrel perched obliviously on a branch five feet up. The creature doesn't even have time to blink before my arrow pierces it, straight through the eye.

I take down another squirrel and a rabbit before I decide I've gotten enough meat for the day. I head back to our meeting place and start picking berries in a nearby bush.

"Nice kills," says Gale. I turn around to see him holding two rabbits of his own and a basket of herbs. He comes and sits beside me on the forest floor. We pick berries in silence for a couple of seconds before our hands brush, and he pauses.

"What?" I whisper.

Gale turns towards me, but his eyes don't meet mine. "Katniss, do you ever wonder..." he trails off, pretending to be examining something he's holding. A piece of grass.

"Wonder what?" I ask. I try to keep my breathing normal, but it doesn't work out too well. Is he finally going to spit out what he's been trying to tell me all of those times? Will I finally know what he's been keeping from me?

He looks up at me, his gray eyes blazing with something I can't quite place. He stares at me for a moment, and I wonder what he's thinking, why he's looking at me like that. It's gone in a second though, and he returns to his normal self with a shake of his head. "Nothing," he mumbles.

He tries to turn away from me again, but I put my hand on his shoulder and pull him back. "Really, Gale?" I ask him, exasperated. "You always do that."

"Do what?" he says innocently.

I roll my eyes and give him my best scowl. "You _know_ what. That thing where you start to say something, but you stop and don't tell me what it was."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

I groan and stand up, stretching. He stands up with me, but I walk off without looking back at him. As I'm nearing the fence, he jogs up behind me and pulls me back. He asks me if I'm angry at him, and I shake my head. He knows me too well, though; he can see that I'm bothered by his secrecy. But it doesn't matter, I tell myself. I will find out eventually.

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**I won't be continuing this. I'm going to write a KatnissxGale story pretty soon (I already have ideas for it), and this was just practice or... something. **


End file.
